What a Superpower Wants

Over any considerable span of time, if you accept a Chinese view of the world, only two things hold value: gold and real estate.

Real estate is such a large part of China’s global expansion that we’re focusing, for the next six weeks, on interviews with senior people in the cross border real estate business, as a series in our China Going Global channel. We begin with Malcom Riddell’s interview. Watch for more in the coming weeks, and tune in as a Profile Member if you want to promote your own expertise or directly message other TCBN members in the field.

In keeping with the tag line of the Forbes China Tracker - What A Superpower Wants – I posted this week about Real Estate, and why it’s virtually the only segment of the North American economy to be collecting Chinese ODI. I’m hoping to attend two coming events featuring lions of the cross border real estate scene: the Harvard May 10 seminar on closing deals with Chinese real estate investors, featuring China Construction USA’s Yuan Ning, and Ronnie Chan’s May 18 kick-off of the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas brown bag lunch series.

Another thing a superpower wants, where western nations have strength: superior education for its people. Known for churning out scientists and engineers this past 60 years, China has now come to appreciate that great societies are also nurtured by people with open minds and a love of the arts. Moderating the education panel at the GCC-organized “China: A New Generation” conference a few weeks ago, I had a picture painted for me by the subject matter experts: within a decade or so, China will be graduating more liberal arts majors than the USA. So the China Going Global channel will also be looking in more depth at the business opportunity for western universities that China’s reforming educational system presents.

Finally: a superpower wants longevity in its regime. If its leaders are enlightened, that means a healthy and sustainable future for its people. The promise of international collaboration on renewable energy, clean tech, and biomedicine – despite the inherent political and structural difficulties relative to real estate and education - is the most important of motives driving everyone who works between China and the west.

Expanding content, community, and conversation in our China Going Global and Green Development sectors isn’t just something nice to do. It’s practical, even necessary, to connect as many people as possible who are active in these areas. When everyone - regardless of how they define their place in the cross border space - can work to his strengths, and as part of something collaborative and effective, we’ll succeed not only as individuals in business, but as part of a more vibrant and organized sector within which all of us are more valuable.